The Tar Deposits of Athabasca Sands is a gargantuan, orderly nation, ruled by His Oiliness Nick Athabasca with an iron fist, and notable for its avowedly heterosexual populace, parental licensing program, and free-roaming dinosaurs. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical, humorless, devout population of 22.012 billion Athabascans are kept under strict control by the oppressive government, which measures its success by the nation's GDP and refers to individual citizens as "human resources."

The relatively small, corrupt, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Administration, and Industry. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of McMurray. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 14.3%.

The frighteningly efficient Athabasca Sandsian economy, worth a remarkable 4,196 trillion Tars a year, is broadly diversified and dominated by the Arms Manufacturing industry, with significant contributions from Information Technology, Uranium Mining, and Soda Sales. Black market activity is rampant. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is an impressive 190,661 Tars, with the richest citizens earning 7.9 times as much as the poorest.

Tipsy fans frequently invite themselves to the board meetings of sports clubs, fixing attendance at women's matches is a matter of "when they go low, we go high... funding", every diamond ring sold is accompanied by a twenty-five page analysis and a waiver, and Calvinball players are lost for days as they wander the vast halls of their new academies. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Athabasca Sands's national animal is the Ghost, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, and its national religion is Frackism.

Athabasca Sands is ranked 57,038^th in the world and 2^nd in War Weary for Largest Publishing Industry, scoring 5,076 on the Bella Potter Productivity e-Index.